Express & Star

Mother who wrongly claimed £20k benefits gets community order

A Dudley mother claimed more than £20,000 in benefits she was not entitled to.

Published

Emma Aston, of Stour Hill, Brierley Hill, failed to tell benefit assessors that she was living with husband Mark Aston, instead claiming that she was living alone as a single mother.

The 46-year-old claimed housing benefit from Dudley Council and income support from the Department for Work and Pensions.

She was paid a total of £20,684 between January 2011 and February 2015 which she was not entitled to.

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard that when the claims were originally made, Aston was entitled to the money.

However, just a few weeks later, the pair were back living together.

Prosecuting, Gurdeep Garcha, said: "She claimed that she was an unemployed single parent who had care of her young children with no other income.

The benefit was granted as it should have been, but it wasn't long after this claim was granted that she had reconciled with her husband and they were living together again."

Aston, who represented herself in court, said: "I didn't know what he was going to do, whether he was going to stay or not."

She pleaded guilty to two charges of dishonestly failing to notify a change of circumstances effecting entitlement to benefits.

As well as paying the money back, Aston, who admitted was ordered to do 100 hours' unpaid work over a two-year community order.

Recorder Paul Atkinson said: "You had a lot of time to make this change in circumstances known and you didn't."

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.